The maps feature can be helpful if you manage to get lost and want to get back to the start for example, but it tends to prioritise roads over tracks which could make it a longer route. There’s also some of the emergency features but I haven’t even set them up.
The overnight metrics aren’t bad but I don’t think they are brilliant, the sleep one for example.
Battery life is good, but that’s partly because they stuck a low energy GPS in it, which by default seems to reduce accuracy, I found it very hit and miss when swimming, if you are treading water waiting for the start it loses signal and takes a while to pick back up, as a result I’ve missed a few swims. Both of these might have been resolved by firmware updates but I haven’t swam outdoors since Nice.
The current lap pace is also a bit hit and miss, but I think that goes back to the GPS, which is to enhance battery life, I think there is a setting to improve this at the cost of battery life, so you’ll be charging it a lot more.
But, battery life by default is quite good, I easily get 4 days out of it with a few hours training use and more if I wanted to run it really flat. It also charges quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a good watch, but as you say for ~£500 it’s an expensive upgrade.
Jeff, what GPS setting are you using? Mine is set to GPS + GLONASS & recording every second for all activities which is working well for me. I tracked an open water swim with the default settings and it was rubbish. Now I’m getting good tracking and HR via the wrist so no strap needed in the pool
Has anyone taken much notice of the sleep metrics? I either don’t get much deep sleep or it’s wrong, my 920 had me getting a lot more, so I’m wondering if the accelerometer is more sensitive or it’s also looking at my HR?
It reckons I average about 39 minutes a night, despite being in bed most nights for up to 8:30 hours, not all asleep but I don’t lay in bed watching TV or playing on my phone.
Nope… despite regularly getting 8 or more hours of sleep, my Fenix 5 plus always shows me getting a handful of minutes of deep sleep within half an hour or so of going to sleep, and that’s it for the night.
Glad it’s not just me then. I’m also finding my resting HR is quite high, might try sleeping with my HR Strap on instead but I’m not sure it uses it for those metrics?
Sleep recording is quite accurate for me, although it sometimes adds the time I read in bed. It even tracks when I have to get in the middle of the night to sort the kids out. On average it says I get 7h 40 sleep a night: 4h 50 of light sleep, ~3h REM and only 5m deep.
My understanding is that the metrics are purely movement based which does not really correlate to the quality of sleep. Apparently I’m a real fidget (my other half has threatened to kill me on numerous occasions as a result) and I hardly get any deep sleep according to Garmin but feel like I’ve slept well regardless.
I actually watched as my watch uploaded to Garmin on my phone this morning (sad I know) when it first showed the sleep stats it had me as over 2 hours deep sleep and generally only had 2 colours.
Then as I watched it changed as if it had been analysed and reduced my deep sleep to about 40 minutes and added in REM etc., so I think it tries to get clever and fails miserably.
There’s plenty of complaints about it with a bit of searching, but Garmin did actually update the firmware and it also uses HR & HRV to analyse it.
The Measurements
In the past, Garmin devices only used movement and heart rate to analyze your sleep. With this update, if you have a compatible watch*, we’re using additional data — such as heart rate variability — to better measure your time awake and time spent in each sleep stage.
Either way it’s still rubbish, I’m reasonably sure the 2 hours+ was more accurate.
It started playing up a tad, and then the black edges to the watch started to fade, so that I could see the light under the screen if you like. Then today it just flashed feebly and died.
I really don’t want to have to buy a new bloody watch right now!!
What Garmin is it? You can usually ring up Garmin support and they’ll do you an out of warranty replacement for c£75. Whether or not that’s a good deal will depend on what you currently have! If it’s old, you may get lucky and their only option is a better, newer version?!
Good point. It’s about as a good a time for something to break as any. Probably worth hanging on if you can for a few weeks. You arent going to get much on a brand new one I wouldnt have thought, but the previous generation might be fairly well discounted.
It’s a forerunner 230. It’s been a great watch and I got it on black Friday 2 or 3 years ago, when it had just been released, for little over 100. The deal was so good I was worried the site was dodgy! Haha. But I bought two, sold one and made some dollar back.
If I had unlimited budget I’d get the new fenix 6 girl’s size one, as my little wrists are tiny! But I don’t have a spare 700 notes lying around. It’ll have to be sub 200.
The 235 is already in your price bracket, as is the 735 though might not have the battery life for some of your more extreme adventures. Both have a good chance of being in Black Friday sales, unlikely the newer 245 or 945 will be discounted.
Might get the 935 reduced below your price point as it’s now the old tri watch. 935/945 are basically plastic fenix watches, might not be as premium, but they are smaller/lighter for your girly wrists …
Just read up on the 245, and that looks pretty decent. Might manage to nick a deal on black Friday - when is it normally?
Ill take a look at the 935 though. That sounds like it may have mileage. I’m borrowing a mate’s fenix for my 100 next month, so that’s covered at least. Though I’m seriously starting to get worried about whether I’m gonna make the start line.
